Defense attorneys for two Shelby Township brothers accused in the baseball bat-beating of a rival restaurant owner are objecting to a plan by federal prosecutors to introduce 14-year-old, unsubstantiated evidence in the case.

Court records show the U.S. Attorney’s Office say back in 1995 a similar incident took place with another restaurant owner who now claims Giuseppe D’Anna and Girolamo D’Anna threatened him for opening an Italian restaurant in close proximity to theirs.

The brothers allegedly ushered the unidentified owner, described as a confidential witness, into a business office that had a shotgun near the desk.

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“Giuseppe D’Anna gestured to the shotgun and said he was not afraid to use it,” prosecutors said in court filings.

Earlier this year, the D’Anna brothers were indicted on three counts of extortion involving the owner of Nonna’s Kitchen on 23 Mile Road in Shelby Township that began in 2009. They also were sentenced to serve three months in jail for beating Nonna’s owner Pietro Ventimiglia with a baseball bat.

Federal officials say the 1995 case is “substantially similar” to the alleged crimes the brothers now face.

According to the motion, the D’Anna brothers opened the Tira Mi Su restaurant in 1994 and hired the confidential witness. A year later, the witness left their employ and went to work for a newly-opened restaurant a couple of blocks away called Cafe Italia.

A short time later, the witness said he was approached by Giuseppe D’Anna, who invited him to return to Tira Mi Su for a discussion. Once in the business office, the witness said Giuseppe D’Anna made the alleged threat with the shotgun, the motion states.

The witness ran out of the office and vomited in the parking lot. A few months later, the owner of Cafe Italia sold the business to the D’annas, who closed it down.

The witness -- who like the D’Anna brothers was born and raised in Terrasini, Italy -- did not file a police report because he was concerned about his immigration status at the time, prosecutors said in court records.

Court documents show the witness in the past year told FBI agents about the 1995 incident and also testified before a federal grand jury probing allegations against the brothers.

A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday to determine whether U.S. District Court Judge Denise Page Hood will allow the evidence to be used in trial.

Defense attorney James Thomas, representing Giuseppe D’Anna, in court documents objected to the new evidence, questioning why the witness had never complained before. Too much time has passed to verify if the act took place and the allegations are unfairly prejudicial, he said.

Likewise, Girolamo D’anna’s attorney, Stephen Rabaut, also objected, noting his client never had an ownership in Tira Mi Su and there is no evidence linking him to the 1995 incident with the shotgun.

Rabaut said a jury would have trouble weighing the evidence against each of the brothers if Girolamo wasn’t involved in the first incident.

The U.S. Justice Department, in court filings, have painted the D’Anna brothers as having ties to alleged Sicilian Mafia figures in Italy and should be considered dangerous.

Rabaut countered by saying the Mafia references are “aimed at providing propensity rather than motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake.”

He said the prejudicial effect of the new evidence would have a “spill over” impact that would make it unlikely for Girolamo D’Anna to receive a fair trial.